Monday, March 2, 2009

The Issue of Tissue

I was shopping with my mum earlier this evening and I was surprised to see her reach for non-recycled paper toilet tissue. She always used to have an earth friendly brand in the bathroom but she says she’s gone back to buying a luxury brand as she likes how soft it is and that it’s too scratchy when the paper is recycled. I proceeded to rip open a pack of recycled non-bleached tissue like we use in our house to show her that it’s not that bad – it’s not like sand paper like it used to be years ago when they first started selling it.

End result, she’s taken some home to try again.

After our conversation I stood there and scanned the shelf in the supermarket and was surprised to see that nearly a quarter of the brands on offer had only a small (or even worse, zero) percentage of recycled paper used in the manufacture. I was embarrassed. I came home and googled the issue thinking how awful that there’s still obviously a quarter of people in NZ using virgin wood pulp to wipe their arse (please excuse my coarse language). Surely the rest of the world would be horrified when we’re supposed to be all ‘clean and green’ here in NZ. Yeah, right!

Well……this is an article that I found. 98% of toilet tissue sold in the US today is from non-recycled paper.

Don’t worry I’m not going to deliver a lecture but I just thought I’d bring it to your attention. Do what you will with the information :-)

Canadian readers though, might be interested to know where some of the 200 year old trees come from to make this fluffy, multi-ply luxury so favoured in North American bathrooms.

8 comments:

I had no idea, Lou.We try to be as green as possible in our house. And I think it's quite ridiculous not to buy recycled everything, and to recycle everything.I'm going to take your info and post over at my place.

Yeah I get that Kate and that's where our governments are going wrong. We often need help to make green choices.

Extra 'sales' taxes (GST here, VAT in UK etc) should be removed from all products known to be less heavy on the environment. Thats what we should be lobbying our governments for...they've talked at times about doing it here for fruit and vegetables etc to encourage healthier eating - same deal!

I will say this, I do all the grocery shopping for my, ah, wife's house and I do notice that the 'green' TP only comes in packs of 4.

I'd have to buy 3 to 6 packs at a time for the needs of this house. Shamefully, I have to admit that I have no idea how much the green TP costs, but I'm sure it's a bit more expensive than the ohhhh soooo soft stuff I do buy in packs of 12.

However, I promise, Lou that next time I need TP I will check the green TP out. Fair enough?

Americans are pigs. I can say that as I am one...American I mean. The very idea that we use other country's trees to wipe our...buns, is embarrassing to me. We need to get greener with the TP. Maybe even do away with it and return to the days of corn cobs. It would also contribute to our farm economy. Not too sure as to disposal, however. We need a government grant to study that aspect of it, methinks.